3rd person charged in May dismemberment slaying

Staff report

A third person has been arrested and charged in connection with the slaying and decapitation of a West Side man in May, police said.

Milton Miranda, who is believed to be the boyfriend of a woman already charged in the slaying, was arrested in Morristown, N.J., according to Chicago Police Department News Affairs Officer Janel Sedevic, and charged with first degree murder in the death of Jose Reyes in May.

Daisy Gutierrez, 19, had earlier been charged with first degree murder in connection with Reyes' death and her father Salvador Gutierrez, 56, was charged with concealing a homicide.

According to what Cook County prosecutors said after Daisy Gutierrez was arrested and charged in October, she and her boyfriend had lured Reyes to her Southwest Side home, in the 8300 block of South Scottsdale Avenue, where she led him to her bedroom and began to undress. The boyfriend then kicked in the door and attacked Reyes, slitting his throat and later decapitating him.

The boyfriend then dismembered Reyes' body and Salvador Gutierrez dug a hole in the backyard and buried the remains, prosecutors said.

Both Daisy Gutierrez and her father were arrested in October, but the boyfriend fled to New Jersey and a warrant was issued for his arrest. Miranda was taken into custody by Chicago police on Saturday.

Gutierrez has two children, ages 2 and 1, with Reyes' brother, prosecutors said.

Reyes, of the 1400 block of North Harding Avenue in Humboldt Park, had been reported missing soon after he had gone to see Gutierrez and his family had peppered his neighborhood with fliers asking for information on the Honduran native's disappearance.

Reyes, whose age was listed by authorities as 28, though his family said he was 30, moved to Chicago five years ago in hopes of improving his life, according to his family, who identified him as Jose Reyes Ramos.

The oldest of four children, Reyes worked in construction and sent most of his money back home to Tegucigalpa, where he has family, his brother Jorge Moncada Ramos said. Reyes had planned to return to Honduras to take care of his ill sister.